Can you help me to finish my university?

Hello my possible funder,

How nice of you that you stopped by and were interested in learning more about me.

This text below may look long, but please stay with me because this is how dreams are made.

I am Sezgi Dila, from Istanbul, and I am a lawyer in the making.

While having my education in Saint Benoit in Istanbul, where I have been accepted with a scholarship provided to the students whose taking the college acceptance exam and score in top %1, I found my dream: Having a university degree on law from the best of the world: Paris Sorbonne University.

I graduated from Saint Benoit with a score of 96 out of 100 and ranked in the top 5 graduates. As a French college, France allowed us to apply to 3 universities in France.

I applied only for “the one” for me, Sorbonne.

And from 35000 applicants worldwide, I ended up being one of the 700 hundred applicants who have been accepted in the top%2. I was accepted.

When I thought that it was done, I did it; I managed to achieve my dream; I recognized that life was giving you lemons and set aside teaching you how to do lemonade; those lemons were not coming for free the first hand.

As a non-EU Turkish citizen, I was bound to pay €2,770 for the education fee. This was my first crisis, but my records and achievements from high school earned me another scholarship from Sorbonne, and my education fee per year dropped to €170.

I started my school, and despite almost half of the students leaving at the end of the first year due to the legendary Sorbonne education, I stayed with everything I got. I spent 10 to 12 hours per day studying, trying to catch up with my French peers and to get even better. I stayed in dorms, but then the financial crisis started hitting. Hard.

My mom is a housewife. She quit her profession to raise me and help me to follow my dreams.

My dad is an underwriter. Working in an insurance company.

As the only child, they gave me the best life they could provide; if I were staying in Turkey, they would still be providing. But when you start spending Euro by earning Turkish Lira, that is when the tables turn.

My dad’s salary is now equal to 800 Euros (in August 2022) and my overall basic living costs in Paris is €775. That’s why they took loans after loans to keep me on the road to my dreams.

I left the dorm in the half of my first year, stayed from friend to friend, then moved back to Turkey. I studied at home, then went to France for the exams and returned. To keep the travel costs as low as possible, I traveled by plane, train even my dad was taking me by car.

But now, we are approaching the intersection.

With this economic situation in my home country, it is almost impossible for my father to cover my expenses. We are in a position where my family nor I can help. This is not personal incompetency; this is a country-wise economical struggle.

Therefore, now I am asking YOUR help to keep me on my way to becoming the lawyer I dreamt of. I worked for this for the last five years with all tears and blood. I did it and don’t want it to slip away from my fingers.

If you have already read this far, I know that you are a person who knows what it feels to have a dream to run to, even if it is up the hill.

Please think of me as a future investment for your free law adviser. :)

Thanks in advance for your support.

Kind regards,

Dila